The Big Bend: Giant U-shaped skyscraper planned for New York

As skyscrapers soar to new heights, a New York architecture firm is taking a different approach, proposing a U-shaped tower that would smash records as the longest building in the world.

Designs for the “Big Bend” show a 4,000 ft long, arched skyscraper that would tower over Manhattan’s Billionaires’ Row – an area named for its ultra-luxury residential high-rise buildings.

US architectural studio Oiio came up with the idea as a way to work around New York City’s strict zoning laws, which the firm says have “created a peculiar set of tricks through which developers try to maximise their property’s height in order to infuse it with the prestige of a high-rise structure”.

“But what if we substituted height with length?” the company asks on its website.

“If we manage to bend our structure instead of bending the zoning rules of New York, we would be able to create one of the most prestigious buildings in Manhattan. The longest building in the world.”

If built, the Big Bend would replace Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, which at 2,722ft measures as the longest building in the world.

As for how people would get around in the boomerang-shaped building once it’s constructed, Oiio says it has a simple, but revolutionary, solution.